UPDATE 4 (10:15 PM): Aside from Celcom itself, Tune Talk is also giving away free 1GB although it will be activated in stages starting from 12:00 AM on 5 October. More information in the story below.
UPDATE 3 (7:01 PM): Celcom stated that its network is being gradually restored since 6:00 PM. The telco is also providing free data to all customers until midnight. More details below.
UPDATE 2 (5:30 PM): Celcom-affiliated operators such as Tune Talk, Yoodo, and unifi Mobile have also been affected by the outage. Read further for more information.
UPDATE 1 (4:35 PM): Celcom has finally put up an official notice regarding the network outage. Scroll further for more info.
ORIGINAL STORY (4:01 PM):
It has come to our attention that Celcom may be having a massive network issue at the moment that affects customers throughout the country. This happened barely a month after the last major outage which took place late last month.
We have learned about the outage through the chatters that are going on throughout the social media network as well as Lowyat.NET Forums. For example, Celcom is trending at number 2 on Twitter at 3:48 PM:
Once you click on the topic, you would be able to see a long list of complaints from Celcom users regarding the service outage:
Similar complaints have also appeared on the most recent posts on Celcom’s Facebook page:
In our forums, user heLL_bOy has opened up a topic regarding the outage inside the Kopitiam section and other users have since then reported outage in various areas throughout the country including Miri, Seremban, Petaling Jaya, Ipoh, Shah Alam, and Subang Jaya.
At the time of writing, Celcom has yet to provide any public clarifications regarding the service outage through its social media channels. The best explanation at the moment from the telco’s customer service agents on Twitter that we’ve seen so far is “intermittent network issue”:
We’ll keep you updated as we monitor the progress of this issue. So, stay tuned.
UPDATE 1 (4:35 PM):
Celcom has finally acknowledged the issue by posting this notice on Twitter and Facebook:
As per what we experienced before though, Celcom didn’t provide in-depth details with regards to the outage in the notice apart from it affecting voice and data services throughout the country. We will keep you posted when we see a further update from the telco.
UPDATE 2 (5:30PM):
Not surprisingly, two Celcom-affiliate operators, Tune Talk and Yoodo have also stated that the downtime is affecting their customers too:
Same goes for unifi Mobile who relies on Celcom to provide 3G and HSPA+ connectivity to its customers when they are not within unifi Mobile’s 4G network:
In the meantime, we have yet to see hints of recovery. We’ll keep you posted when the next update comes around.
UPDATE 3 (7:01 PM):
Celcom has sent out a media statement which stated that its network is being restored in a gradual manner since 6:00 PM. While the telco still didn’t provide an in-depth explanation regarding the actual nature of the outage, the statement did mention “an unforeseen technical incident”.
Due to the downtime, Celcom will be providing free data to all of its customers until 12:00 AM tonight, as noted in the full statement that we reproduced below:
“Due to an unforeseen technical incident around 3pm on 4 October 2020, we regret to announce that customers nationwide had experienced interruptions for voice, SMS and data services.
All services are gradually being restored as of 6pm on the same day.
We would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused, as they were unable to place calls and access internet data.
As a token of our appreciation for our customers’ patience, all data usage for our customer’s allocated quota, will not be deducted from 6pm to 12am (midnight) on 4th October 2020 (today).”
At the time we published this update, it seems that Celcom has yet to make this announcement on its Twitter or Facebook although the telco’s CEO, Idhwan Nawawi has tweeted this:
Nevertheless, if you are a Celcom customer, then we do recommend you keep track of the network status as well as the free data that the telco has promised to you.
UPDATE 4 (10:15PM):
Aside from Celcom itself, Tune Talk is also giving away free data after the network interruption earlier today.
However, as noted above, the amount of free data is limited to 1GB which will be valid for 24 hours. In addition to that, the data will be made available in stages starting from 12:00 AM onwards on 5 October.
So, do take note of the free data, Tune Talk customers. That is unless you have already opted in for the operator’s newly launched unlimited plan.
